


Still Waters

by siriuslyapple



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Family Angst, Memories, Post-Manberg-Pogtopia War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Regret, post dream imprisonment, post exile, sad techno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:00:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29313741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siriuslyapple/pseuds/siriuslyapple
Summary: follow me @siriuslyapple on Twitter for more headcanons and minifics :)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Still Waters

Laughter flowed through the heat filled air, slicing through the static humidity of summer. Water splashed against sunburned legs, feet sinking into the damp sand, tiny shells scraping along the surface of the skin. Four boys chased each other along the shallow waves on the beach, screaming and joking and shoving each other down to the water. A blond man with a large smile and a floppy green hat stood off to the side, watching his sons, beaming with pride and joy. 

Tommy let out a shriek and climbed on to Wilbur’s back, prompting Techno to fling a small Tubbo onto his shoulders. The older boys looked at each other with mischief and let out guttural cries as they ran at each other, their younger brothers flailing their arms at each other, giggling and shrieking. 

After a few minutes of haphazard swinging and laughter, a young Tubbo tumbled off of Techno’s shoulders into the water, quickly being swept up by his father.

“Alright boys, it’s gotten late, let’s go home.” Phil smiled and adjusted his small son on his hip while the other boys whined. Tubbo had always been quieter, and nestled his head into the crook of his dad’s neck, yawning and sleepily humming against his hair. Some more protests from Tommy and some calming words from Wilbur, and the family was on their way home. 

The boy all had their own beds, but frequently piled into the same bed and held each other. Throughout the next few years, Tubbo and Tommy shot up and started to build their own personalities. Tommy was loud and chaotic, and followed everything Will did, admiring him beyond anyone. Tubbo remained quiet and watchful, always cracking quiet jokes and gentle words. He idolized Tommy, and even started dying his hair blonde to match his brother. 

Wilbur and Techno also blossomed into their own personalities over the years. Wilbur was brilliant and hardworking and peaceful. He never got angry and always seemed to know what to say. Techno was bright and thoughtful, and he always knew what he was talking about. 

While the boys were becoming their own people, however, Phil was slipping away. He pushed aside their problems, and would sometimes yell at or ignore his children. They had to learn to be there for each other, and the things that made them unique started to blur into each other. 

Tommy became hotheaded and impulsive, not just loud. Tubbo became alert and aware, not just watchful. Wilbur became calculated and measured, not just smart. Techno became stone faced and bitter, not just thoughtful. Their features of their lives flared into the worst of extremes, shaping them into caricatures of who they had been. 

So many years later, they had been through so much together, and it felt unreal. Techno sat alone at the beach they had visited as children, silently staring out to the almost unmoving water. He sifted through his mental library, running his imaginary fingers over the spines of his memories. He thought of the joy that had once encompassed his family, and compared to now, it felt like forever ago. 

He had tried to bring Tommy and Tubbo to this beach after Dream had been sent to prison, and Tommy had had a complete breakdown. He’d started mumbling and ringing his hands and shaking. Techno had carried his sobbing younger brother away from the water, the crashing of the waves flooding his ears, Tubbo walking slowly behind them, receding into himself. 

When they had gotten to Tommy’s house, he’d tried to get him to talk about it, but he’d just brushed it aside and started busying himself. Techno eventually just left Tubbo and Tommy alone and went home, finding another panicked teenager surrounded by dirt and burning tears. He’d spent hours with Ranboo, comforting him and watching over him long after the tall boy had passed out from exhaustion. 

That was who he was now. He fought against the government and fussed over traumatized kids. He remembered how his own father had once been, and tried to always be what he had needed. He had once been bright and happy, and now was heavy and gloomy. His life had shaped him into a broken man. He had been a failure to his younger brothers. All of them. He could only try his best now.

The still waters and the deafening silence overwhelmed him, but he stayed. Techno thought of Tubbo, his once quiet and gentle little brother. Tubbo had been caring and observatory, always watching and knowing what people needed. After being raised through so much violence and terror, he was overly joyful. 

Techno had watched the young boy overcompensate with humour, and had watched him collapse with Tommy’s exile and betrayal. Tubbo had folded in on himself without Tommy, wading through life sluggishly with lead limbs and glassy eyes. It hurt his chest to remember who the boy had once been.

Wilbur hurt the most, though. They had been best friends. They had schemed together and laughed together. He had loved Wilbur more than he had loved anyone. And now he was gone. Not only was his brother dead, he had gone insane leading up to his death, and he had been killed by their father. Techno had watched the person he loved most descend into madness, watched him sacrifice their family and hurt the people close to him. 

It would have been easy to blame all of his problems on Will. It would have been easier to blame them on Phil, who was merely a semblance of the man he had once been. Instead, Techno found a way to blame himself, carrying the burden of his family’s pain on his sagging shoulders, his once prideful poise collapsed into shame and sorrow. 

He watched the ocean gently lap at the shore, and could almost see shadows of the past playing and splashing in the water. He stayed at the beach well into the night, when the moon hung low and heavy in the inky sky, peppered with stories traced through stars. 'One day,' he thought, 'these stars will tell the tragic tales of my family.' 

His pain simmered under the quiet surface when he headed home, quietly checking in on the sleeping hybrid boy in his small shack, leaving a small pile of dirt on the doorstep, a bright purple hyacinth resting on top. His feet dragged his tired body to his bed, and he collapsed into another night of fond memories and piercing regrets, wishing for a faint moment that he was curled under soft covers with his brothers, clinging to the warmth that existed only in his mind. 

*Hyacinths are commonly used to represent sorrow and regret

**Author's Note:**

> follow me @siriuslyapple on Twitter for more headcanons and minifics :)


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